TULSA 3, UC DAVIS 1 (20-25, 25-13, 26-24, 25-20)
LONG BEACH, CA — Tulsa took charge in the decisive fourth set with a 7-0 run and held on at the finish, moving past UC Davis in the first round of the 2019 NIVC. Tulsa (16-15) will play Santa Clara on Thursday in Round 2. UC Davis (17-13) was in its first postseason appearance since 1996. In the first set, the Aggies came back from a 10-5 deficit to take a solid 22-17 lead before wrapping up the set. Mahalia White had two kills to finish it, 25-20. Tulsa responded in the second set by hitting .303, while UC Davis was in the negative (-.054). In Set 3, the Golden Hurricane took a 21-14 lead before UC Davis stormed back to tie it at 23-all. Two attack errors by the Aggies ended up being the difference. That 7-0 run for Tulsa in the fourth set pushed it to a 17-9 lead; the Aggies countered and closed within 18-16. The match ended on a kill from Callie Cook, who had nine for the match. Tulsa got 10 kills and 17 digs from Dilara Gedikoglu, a freshman from Turkey. Taylor Horsfall added 17 digs, and Mariah Pardo had 15 assists as the Golden Hurricane hit .156 for the match. The Aggies got 13 kills from Lauren Matias; Jane Seslar had 34 assists, and Shira Lahav added 20 digs. SANTA CLARA 3, LONG BEACH STATE 2 (25-20, 25-23, 22-25, 23-25, 16-14) LONG BEACH, CA — Santa Clara had just two hitting errors in the first two sets to get off to a fast start, but required a comeback in the fifth set to get past Long Beach State in the first round of the 2019 NIVC. Santa Clara (21-11) will play Tulsa at 10 p.m. ET on Thursday in Round 2. Long Beach State ends its season at 12-17. It was the first meeting between the programs since 2008. The Broncos hit .382 in the first set and did not have a single hitting error. LBSU made it interesting in Set 2 and finally broke through in Set 3 to fend off the sweep. In the fifth set, Allison Kantor had two kills to push the Broncos up, 11-9, but LBSU fought back and had match point at 14-13. Julia Sangiacomo punched down two kills to make it 15-14 for Santa Clara, and Michelle Shaffer delivered a service ace off the net to clinch the victory. Taylor Odom, third in the national blocks per set, had 10 on the night for Santa Clara to go with 12 kills. Shaffer finished with 57 assists and 13 digs for Santa Clara; Kantor had 22 kills and 14 digs, Sangiacomo closed with 21 kills and Gretchen Reinert added 20 digs. Carly Aigner-Swesey had 50 assists and 10 digs for LBSU; Yizhi Xue had 17 kills, and both Katie Kennedy and Kashauna Williams had 14 kills. Hailey Harward added 27 digs. SANTA CLARA 3, LONG BEACH STATE 2 (25-20, 25-23, 22-25, 23-25, 16-14)
LONG BEACH, CA — Santa Clara had just two hitting errors in the first two sets to get off to a fast start, but required a comeback in the fifth set to get past Long Beach State in the first round of the 2019 NIVC. Santa Clara (21-11) will play Tulsa at 10 p.m. ET on Thursday in Round 2. Long Beach State ends its season at 12-17. It was the first meeting between the programs since 2008. The Broncos hit .382 in the first set and did not have a single hitting error. LBSU made it interesting in Set 2 and finally broke through in Set 3 to fend off the sweep. In the fifth set, Allison Kantor had two kills to push the Broncos up, 11-9, but LBSU fought back and had match point at 14-13. Julia Sangiacomo punched down two kills to make it 15-14 for Santa Clara, and Michelle Shaffer delivered a service ace off the net to clinch the victory. Taylor Odom, third in the national blocks per set, had 10 on the night for Santa Clara to go with 12 kills. Shaffer finished with 57 assists and 13 digs for Santa Clara; Kantor had 22 kills and 14 digs, Sangiacomo closed with 21 kills and Gretchen Reinert added 20 digs. Carly Aigner-Swesey had 50 assists and 10 digs for LBSU; Yizhi Xue had 17 kills, and both Katie Kennedy and Kashauna Williams had 14 kills. Hailey Harward added 27 digs. TULSA 3, UC DAVIS 1 (20-25, 25-13, 26-24, 25-20)
LONG BEACH, CA — Tulsa took charge in the decisive fourth set with a 7-0 run and held on at the finish, moving past UC Davis in the first round of the 2019 NIVC. Tulsa (16-15) will play either host Long Beach State or Santa Clara on Thursday in Round 2. UC Davis (17-13) was in its first postseason appearance since 1996. In the first set, the Aggies came back from a 10-5 deficit to take a solid 22-17 lead before wrapping up the set. Mahalia White had two kills to finish it, 25-20. Tulsa responded in the second set by hitting .303, while UC Davis was in the negative (-.054). In Set 3, the Golden Hurricane took a 21-14 lead before UC Davis stormed back to tie it at 23-all. Two attack errors by the Aggies ended up being the difference. That 7-0 run for Tulsa in the fourth set pushed it to a 17-9 lead; the Aggies countered and closed within 18-16. The match ended on a kill from Callie Cook, who had nine for the match. Tulsa got 10 kills and 17 digs from Dilara Gedikoglu, a freshman from Turkey. Taylor Horsfall added 17 digs, and Mariah Pardo had 15 assists as the Golden Hurricane hit .156 for the match. The Aggies got 13 kills from Lauren Matias; Jane Seslar had 34 assists, and Shira Lahav added 20 digs. For an entire summer and the first few steps of the 2019 schedule, Kansas City volleyball coach Christi Posey felt perfectly content to roll out her plan, one that pushed the Roos to a 21-11 record the year before, the squad's first winning record since 2014.
But after an injury to an outside hitter thinned out options offensively, Posey decided to make junior Alli Schomers the primary setter and shift to a 5-1 offense. There was no guarantee the dramatic change would work, as Schomers hadn’t played in a 5-1 since high school, but the Roos proved resourceful and pushed their way to a 17-11 record, 12-4 in the Western Athletic Conference. With the talent and ability to adjust holding firm, Kansas City earned a spot in the 2019 National Invitational Volleyball Championship, the first-ever postseason berth for the program. The Roos will face UNLV (19-10) at the South Dakota regional on Thursday at 5:30 p.m. ET. Schomers ended up as the 2019 WAC setter of the year; Posey watched anxiously at times as the new plan unfolded, but fortunately the roster grew into the challenge. “It was a combination of things, like it generally is when you make a significant decision like that. The 6-2 had been effective because we usually have good balance with (multiple) attackers; that didn’t quite happen with our personnel,” said Posey, who is in her ninth year with Kansas City. “A sign of an evolving coach is making decisions based on personnel and not on their style or personality. We have a quality setter in Schomers, she ran a 5-1 earlier in career, and that was helpful. We also had some kids step up and play well, and that system seems to work for right now, and we hope to have success as we move through the tournament.” After a solid freshman year in 2018, Melanie Brecka has muscled up again with 345 kills, and Ty Lukes continues to patrol the middle with offensive and defensive impact. The leading light is arguably Alicia Harrington, a senior outside hitter who has 404 kills and earned first-team all-WAC honors, but the team has been tough to rattle on essentially every spot on the floor. “Melanie Brecka has been a mainstay for us, a solid offensive player, with great volleyball IQ. She’s versatile, can jump off one or two feet, puts ball into play with good decisions. Ty Lukes has rallied the last part of the season, had a bit of a rough start after a breakout season last year,” Posey said. “We rely on Mykal Sadler in the middle (who missed all of 2018 with a knee injury) as well. Alex Ratzlaff and Maddie Renn are critical to our success, providing such great stability in handling the ball, and in our offense when we want to play fast in front of and behind the setter.” The season ended up with multiple highlights, but the Roos learned a lot about themselves at a tournament hosted by Missouri, where the strengths of the new offense, and its weaknesses, had nowhere to hide. “The tournament at Missouri had three quality opponents; after all that I felt we had settled into the 5-1, and I felt better about our two-hitter situation,” Posey said. “I don’t know if we played all that great against Northern Iowa, but Austin Peay has always been a high-level opponent, maybe a little down this year, but we battled and toughed it out and played well. “And even though Missouri smoked us, I was really pleased with how our kids responded to the challenge and how we performed. I appreciated and admired how we battled and hung in; that’s been our mantra, get through the ugly and get to the other side and see where we are … put pressure on people, and we have a shot.” In taking on UNLV, Posey said her team will have to hit the court at full readiness and attention, as the Rebels are a tough serving outfit that thrives on the disruption caused when the first pass is off the mark. The best thing is getting to scout, prepare and execute in a postseason moment, which is the kind of thing that can really stick with a program. “Clearly, the NIVC elevates our program in all phases. From a recruiting standpoint, we can speak to the opportunity to keep playing,” Posey added. “It’s important for us, and we’re so appreciative to grab this opportunity because I was so sad when the NIVC stopped (in 1995). What I want us to do is work toward having more relevance in the Kansas City area … we see the KC volleyball community having great depth and talent, and we always recruit first here. We want people to see us as a team to be recognized, and have folks come over to watch us play and see our kids, who work as hard as anyone in a Power 5 conference.” FORT COLLINS, Colo. – Proving yet again that the depth and talent base in Division-I women’s volleyball is enough to merit a deeper postseason footprint, tournament officials have secured a standout lineup of 32 teams to compete in the 2019 National Invitational Volleyball Championship.
Powered by Triple Crown Sports, this is the third year of the reborn NIVC event, which originally ran from 1989-1995. Previous champions of the new incarnation of the NIVC are Iowa State (2018) and Ole Miss (2017). All matches in the NIVC are hosted by participating schools. Rounds 1 and 2 will be held Dec. 5-7; Round 3 will take place Dec. 9-12, and the semifinals will be held between Dec. 13-15. The NIVC championship game will be held either Dec. 16, 17 or 18. In bracket order, here’s the schedule for the first two rounds of the 2019 NIVC: (home team listed first, all times Eastern) Dec. 5 at South Dakota UNLV (19-10) vs. Kansas City (17-11), 5:30 p.m. South Dakota (27-2) vs. Central Michigan (21-8), 8 p.m. Dec. 6 at South Dakota Winners, 3 p.m. Dec. 5 at UT Arlington Houston (16-16) vs. Sam Houston State (18-13), 6 p.m. UT Arlington (18-13) vs. UT San Antonio (16-13), 8 p.m. Dec. 6 at UT Arlington Winners, 7:30 p.m. Dec. 4 at Long Beach State UC Davis (17-12) vs. Tulsa (15-15), 8 p.m. Long Beach State (12-16) vs. Santa Clara (20-11), 10 p.m. Dec. 5 at Long Beach State Winners, 10 p.m. Dec. 5 at Wyoming Weber State (24-8) vs. Boise State (18-11), 6 p.m. Wyoming (21-8) vs. Northwestern State (20-12), 8:30 p.m. Dec. 6 at Wyoming Winners, 8:30 p.m. Dec. 6 at Georgia Tech Troy (22-9) vs. North Carolina A&T (16-14), 4 p.m. Georgia Tech (21-8) vs. Alabama A&M (20-14), 7 p.m. Dec. 7 at Georgia Tech Winners, 7 p.m. Dec. 7 at Liberty High Point (20-12) vs. Morehead State (23-9), 4:30 p.m. Liberty (19-11) vs. La Salle (15-13), 7 p.m. Dec. 8 at Liberty Winners, 3 p.m. Dec. 5 at Bowling Green Miami (OH) (17-11) vs. TCU (9-17), 4:30 p.m. Bowling Green (19-12) vs. Purdue-Fort Wayne (18-14), 7 p.m. Dec. 6 at Bowling Green Winners, 7 p.m. Dec. 6 at Colgate Tulane (21-10) vs. New Hampshire (17-9), 4 p.m. Colgate (22-7) vs. Boston College (20-11), 7 p.m. Dec. 7 at Colgate Winners, 7 p.m. Much like the WNIT and NIT events in college basketball, the NIVC taps into the impressive depth of D-I volleyball and is designed to give more high-performing, highly skilled programs a chance to play for a postseason title. Teams with young rosters get to train and compete with an eye to the future; established rosters get one more chance to play together and memorably cap off their student-athlete experience. About Triple Crown Sports Based in Fort Collins, CO., Triple Crown Sports has been producing college and youth events for more than 35 years. TCS runs both the preseason and postseason WNIT basketball events and produces the men’s and women’s Cancun Challenge tournaments in November. Triple Crown is also powering “WNIT” concept events in D-I softball (NISC) and volleyball (NIVC), with those two events debuting in 2017. TCS youth fastpitch tournaments (including the 900-team Colorado 4th of July event) draw the nation’s finest club programs, and hundreds of college coaches attend TCS events for recruiting purposes |
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